


White Iris

by LexiBunneh



Category: American Horror Story: Freak Show
Genre: Death, F/M, Falling In Love, I Can't Believe I Wrote This, I Don't Even Know, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, I'm Sorry, Original Character(s), Romance, Roses, Swearing, Weirdness, What Was I Thinking?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-21
Updated: 2015-07-21
Packaged: 2018-04-10 09:58:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,045
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4387424
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LexiBunneh/pseuds/LexiBunneh
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Edward Mordrake got tired of claiming souls with his band of freaks and retired to our small community--his hobby was stealing young women from their bedrooms. <b>I wasn't suicidal, so why was I constantly finding myself in his presence?</b></p><p> </p><p>The symptoms of being taken started with the faintest hint of despair that grew slowly over time. The torment of disappointment in everyday life coalesced into a crippling depression, which was the second indicator that he was coming.<br/>"There's a man at my window at night." My friend whispers to me before class begins. This was the third known manifestation of being abducted.<br/>"What are you talking about?" I ask back harshly, trying to mask my fear.<br/>There's only five symptoms and everyone in town knows this...</p>
            </blockquote>





	White Iris

**Author's Note:**

> Okay, please bear with me on this one. This was another dream I had. (I have the weirdest dreams) The actor playing Edward Mordrake is actually really good looking! (Wes Bentley!) The portrait I had in my mind of Edward Mordrake is a more modern version of the character. I hope you like it!

The symptoms of being taken started with the faintest hint of despair that grew slowly over time. The torment of disappointment in everyday life coalesced into a crippling depression, which was the second indicator that he was coming.  
"There's a man at my window at night." My friend whispers to me before class begins. This was the third known manifestation of being abducted.  
"What are you talking about?" I ask back harshly, trying to mask my fear.  
There's only five symptoms and everyone in town knows this. Edward Mordrake got tired of claiming souls with his band of freaks and retired to our small community--his hobby was stealing young women from their bedrooms. Suicidal young women, with a thirst for death.  
"He keeps appearing and looks through my blinds. Yesterday, I wasn't sure if he was really there since there was a storm and no moonlight, but when lightning struck, I saw his heartless blue eyes and heard the whispers of his second head over the crashing thunder." She said with a hint of craziness etched into her facial features. It was evident she was not sleeping good-- if at all.  
"Molly." I sighed while clutching the edge of my book hard, trying to come up with the right words to fool not only her, but myself too. "You must be dreaming. You're the happiest person I know, why would you want to die? He only comes for people with a _death wish."_  
The edge of her mouth slightly twitched as her face drained of color.  
"I wake up sometimes in the morning crumpled against the wall of the window, its always open. I even dreamt I reached out into the rain and touched his face. When I woke, my pajamas were wet." I felt my panic level rise as she whispered this. The fourth indicator is _sleep walking._  
"I wasn't aware this was a chatroom." The teacher says and glowers at us angrily. "Do you mind if I teach now?"  
"Sorry ma'am." Molly mumbles while running a hand through her straggly hair to avoid her embarrassment.  
As the teacher begins to write on the board and ease into her lecture, I leaned over and whispered vehemently into Molly's ear.  
"You live on the goddamn second floor though!" 

 

I should've listened to her. That was the last time I saw her. She was taken from her room-- her window wide open and her carpet stained with wet, bloody footprints. They say his kiss is what takes you from this world and that it is sealed with blood.  
It poured that night-- just like inside my heart. Grief weighed down my chest as I laid sprawled out on my bed. I was too sad to cry, my mournfulness stayed coiled within me. The noise of rain hitting every known surface was the only sound as the black doors to the dreamworld opened for me. Sleepwalking is a terrifying feat-- one that you don't know is happening to you until it's over. Blurry and darkened images of my feet walking one the sidewalk consistently interrupt the darkness of my slumbering mind for brief flashes of a moment. The rain runs its fingers greedily over my whole body as my socks dip into slushes of puddles while crossing the street, but I can't feel any of it. The streetlights produce a fleeting spotlight for me, but burn out as I pass underneath them. The only thing I am acutely aware of is my soul freely dancing in the mystery of being carried into the rich darkness of the unknown.  
When I woke, I was startled to find my surroundings to be unfamiliar to me. With my heart pounding in my chest and my thoughts screaming in my mind-- I tried to make sense of what was happening. I perused the room with an escalating sense of panic arising within. Everything was drenched in black-- the floor, the room, even the bedsheets that I flung off me as I rushed towards the door. My breathing was so loud as my fearful whimpers of fear echoed through the halls that I rushed through.  
"Excuse me, excuse me!" I shouted to no one in particular as I ran down the winding, embellished staircase. The hall was darkened, but was lit vaguely by the dawn starting to creep across the sky and in through the elongated windows. "Please! Excuse me!" I screamed again as my voice bounced against the high ceiling, right before face planting hard into the stairs.  
My lungs unsuccessfully grabbed at the air as I tried to peel myself from the edge of the stair that was imprinted into my ribcage. My adrenaline didn't let me feel the full extent of the pain of my injury, and I gasped at seeing a presence in the doorway to one of the rooms I passed in my frenzy. He peered from behind the wall at me-- a permanent misleading smile was etched onto his face while his eyes displayed an angry type of mania. I quickly got up and ran further down the stairs with fear nipping at my heels. The basement was where I found myself with no other hint of a way out (The front door was bolted shut and adorned with gloom) and a strange green mist whispered into the air and billowed from an emanating puddle of divine mischievousness.  
"Hello?" I asked the emptiness as the stair creaked when I took a step forward.  
A silhouette began to form and expel from the mist. "Hello?" I said again, this time in a whisper for fear of the strange creature that morphed out of the air. No one ever spoke of what Edward looked like-- his face was an enigma, until now. His skin was perfect and the shape of his lips was inviting. I knew it was him as Molly's description from the other day haunted the back of my mind-- those heartless blue eyes. I heard the mist sigh as it released him, and I could almost swear pieces of him ripped away and sank back into the wispy smog. His body went rigged as he became aware of my presence and I froze in pure terror.  
"What the fuck are you doing here?" He asked with anger shrill in his voice. "No one's ever seen my home!" His lip curled in anguish. What shocked me about him wasn't his temper, but how young he looked. His face was so smooth and he looked so sleek dressed in all black. Now I understood why the kiss was so tempting. I could feel my mouth involuntarily hanging open as I stood fixated in a stupor. He sighed as he crept up the stairs and approached me. "Please, forgive my terrible manners, I'm very tired." He said so close that I could feel the exhalation of his words on my cheek. "Do you want to die miss?" He asked me while outstretching his hand for me to hold. I shook my head violently and held my hand to my mouth to conceal my shaking chin. He sighed again, almost irritated. "Then what can I do for you?"  
"Please sir." I started to say. I wanted to be polite, even in the face of death, which I might add, is serenely beautiful. "I am lost and somehow woke up here." He just stared at me for a minute before retracting his hand.  
"Well, I suppose it appears that my house called to you for some reason, but you don't want to die. Very strange." He said and I was scared I wouldn't be able to catch his every word over the loud thudding of my heartbeat. "How about I walk you home?"  
"That would be so nice of you." My voice cracks as my shoulders sag in relief.

 

The locks and accompanying misanthropy to the front door moves aside for Edward as he turns the knob without incident. The sun was taking it's time with rising as we stepped out into the morning and the beginnings of daylight stung my eyes. Suddenly I felt the severity of falling down the stairs and started to limp. I felt his eyes on me and he stiffened with anger again.  
"It'll take all day if you walk like that." He says. "May I?" He forcibly asks while not giving me a choice as hold back a small shriek as he picks me up and proceeds to carry me.  
As I wrapped my right arm around his shoulders, I suddenly become very self conscious. I was still in my damp, damaged nightgown, and had lost my socks somewhere along the way. I tried not to look at his face or the dark circles forming underneath his eyes, that strangely only complimented his features. As we started to walk, a disembodied scent of roses filled my sense of smell. "So are you happy?" He asks as I try to concentrate on the rhythm of his strides in an effort to not to make eye contact. I thought about his question for a minute before answering. It echoed and stretched in my mind as I examined every inch of it and wondered what he could mean by it.  
"Not really. I go to school, then come home to nothing. I pretty much wait for the day to restart so I can feel like I have purpose, but honestly it only feels mediocre." I sucked in the air as my chest tightened after quickly spitting out this sentence. I felt his grip spasm around my back and under my legs.  
"You should be grateful, you were given life." He says as I see from the corner of my eye the slight curling of his lip.  
"And you were given death, are you happy and jumping for joy?" I ask back with a hint of anger. "We're the polar opposites of each other, but we still have met in this strange cycle of life."  
His sudden small frown and silence were an indicator that he was not interested in pursuing this conversation. As we passed the graveyard, the smell of flowers grew more prominent in the moistened air as it started to drizzle. I blushed, hoping my nightgown wouldn't get too wet and become revealing, yet even in with the problem of my self consciousness, I still wondered where the heavy smell of flowers was coming from.  
"So, how did you get into my mansion? Only those close to death and the other side can even see it." He asks and I finally realize the rosy smell is him.  
"I don't know." I say, finally looking at him, but he coldly gazed ahead as we crossed the street. "I just woke up in a black bed."  
He turned his face to me and rolled his eyes. "You slept in my bed too?"

 

As he opened my window and carried me into my room, he seemed to grow more tired as the sun rose higher in the sky. "Have a good day miss." He said while setting me down on my bed and turning to leave. "Please, never brighten my doorstep again, or my bed for that matter too." He says while the curtains drift in the breeze and run their fingers over his torso.  
I couldn't help but chuckle and look down as he said this, he was so charming, but in his own eccentric way. I climbed into bed and mulled over every feature of him that was still fresh in my mind-- his empty blue eyes, his pale, but perfect skin, his youth, but the most strangest thing of all-- why he smelled just like roses.  
"Sir, why do you smell like flowers?" I asked, but when I looked up, he was gone, along with every trace of night from where he came from. As I pulled the covers up and sank deeper into the comfortable confines of my own sheets, I came to the realization that I never gave him any directions on how to get to my house. In the nearing haze of sleep, I could've sworn I heard him answer my question as my sense of reality dulled.  
"I am a professional when it comes to roses." He whispered.

When I awoke later that day, I wondered if all of it was just a dream until I saw the trail of his wet footprints in the carpet leading to the open window and the smell of roses still lingered.

 

I stayed awake for days afterwards--I was too scared to sleep due to the frightening idea that sleepwalking might occur again. A sensation of madness crept into me with the abhorrent lack of rest. I thought of him and his blue eyes that reminded me of the cobalt skies that we didn't see over our township anymore.  
Then it happened again-- I awoke in the same black, silky sheets, unaware of how I got here. Except this time, the smell of flowers was more prominent than ever. As I rolled over and fought to free myself from the harsh tangle of blankets, Edward's sleeping face stirred awake. His eyes fluttered open like the wings of a butterfly and he groaned slightly at the sight of me.  
"You again?" He murmured while tossing and pulling the covers out from under me and to his chin. "Just stay on your side." He mumbled while drifting back into sleep.  
I couldn't get a grasp on my panic-- my heart hammered in my chest with fear encouraging it. My breathing accelerated as a cold sweat poured over my body. My limbs stiffened hard while slowly sitting up, trying not to wake him again. My hair stuck to the side of my face while the taste in my mouth grew more stale as hysteria caused ringing in my ears. Yet, when I looked at him-- sleeping so soundly, so innocently, I felt my panic dissipate. As his chest delicately rose and fell, I realized in this moment how human he really seemed. I gently removed myself from the bed, careful not to bump into him or disturb the covers and I crept into the halls to seek a way out.  
The delicate light spilling in through the windows reveals that the time must be right after dawn.  
Despite how much daylight danced inside the corridor, a murky darkness still loomed in each corner as I passed each vacant room. When I reached the familiar staircase, I held my breath, hoping to not be graced by the presence of the lurking clown again. A voice called down from the hall as I took my first step towards downstairs. My heart stopped as the sound dripped with familiarity.  
“Molly?” My voice bounced off the walls as I slowly approached the source. “Hello?” The voice was eerie and disembodied.  
Suddenly, I noticed a small humanoid shadow devoid of facial features crawling in the corner.  
“His eyes are a heartless blue.” The figure said, echoing the words of Molly.  
In an instant, a prominent fear rippled through me and I took off running without thinking. My instincts brought me back to the only place where I ever felt the faintest hint of safe.  
I leaped into the dark bed, not being courteous of it's already sleeping guest.  
“Oh what the hell?” Edward mumbles while lazily half opening his eyes.  
“I'm scared. I'm really scared.” I whisper while burrowing under the blankets and gesturing to the open doorway.  
“Shh.” To my surprise, he begins to try and calm me.  
He moves aside the bundles of the sheets I had wrapped myself in as a defense mechanism. His touch feels foreign, yet I welcome it as he traces his fingers along my arm and moves to my back. He forcefully pushes me towards him-- my chest was pressed against his as his arms slithered around me-- denying any plausible escape. I don't know what was scarier-- the apparition in the hall or being this close to death. My heart began to pound even harder against the walls of my torso. Fear of intimacy set off alarm bells in my head that were laced with panic. I guess I was too entranced with the beauty of his face earlier to realize that he was only wearing pajama pants. The temperature of his body was cool, just like the first day of autumn that signified the ending of summer. The heartbeat was vague, and it's slow rhythm made a hollow thudding noise in his chest.  
He rested his chin on my head, then whispered “Kiss me” while leaning towards me and pulling my face to his. His light breath trickled onto my cheek as he parted his lips and held firmly onto my chin. The sunlight generously poured in through the windows and left patches of sunlight on the bed. I nervously breathed in the air he exhaled as I felt his skin brush against mine.  
“No!” I shouted and tried to push him away upon remembering that his kiss meant death. My arms were too weak to deter him, yet I managed to fall off the bed, taking all the covers with me.  
“My, what life and spunk you have in you now.” He says as he laughs and rises from the bed to sit at it's edge.  
I glared at him while simultaneously trying to watch his every move. I fought my way out of the blankets again, this time leaving my hair in an embarrassing form of permanent disarray. I couldn't help but blush at his chuckles at my struggling. Through his messy but adorable bed hair, his eyes sparkled with excitement.  
“I'm sorry miss. I haven't been polite to you at all. I just wanted to know what it is that you seek. If it's not sex or death, then what is it?” He asks while grabbing a stray pillow and wrapping his arms around it.  
I don't say anything, but fidget and play with the black sheets. He wants to know my intentions, but it's too bad that I don't have any with the exception of getting the hell out of here as soon as humanly possible. (Emphasizing the word: humanly) “Okay.” He whispers more to himself than to me while resting his chin on the pillow but still maintaining eye contact with me. “My name is Edward Mordrake.”  
“I know who you are.” I insist, a little bit more arrogantly than intended. A confused expression washes over his face.  
“Well then, will you join me for breakfast?” He says while getting up and walking through the doorway.

 

I guess I should've gotten tired of the color black by now or the scent of flowers, but black is my favorite and roses are my favorite flower. Don't ask me why.  
“Your eyes have a ring of white around your irises.” he says while gazing at me briefly before pouring me a steaming cup of tea.  
He seemed like a completely different person than what rumors around town had suggested. He didn't seem like an instrument that had the power to end life.  
“Meaning what?” I ask before stuffing a croissant into my mouth.  
“That whatever you are, you have yet to fully awaken.” He says while watching me eat, not taking a single bite out of his scone on his plate.  
I try to ignore him, being that his mood swings are too strange. “So, I didn't know Death sleeps.” I say, gulping down my food with a swig of the tea.  
He laughs while taking the most delicate bite out of his breakfast. “Why do you think some people have a 'near death experience?' I was asleep or too tired and let them live to tell about it.” He shrugs as if it's no big deal.  
My mind tries to process this-- it gets stuck on the fact that I'm having tea time with death himself, so I give up on trying to rationalize things. “Whats up with the shadows?” I ask, trying to be casual about it, as if I was asking what color the wallpaper was called.  
“Sometimes, people don't always leave whole. Their spirit residue remains after they leave.”  
I don't know what to say to this, being that this means he took my friend from this world, but what could I do if she wanted to leave?  
“What about you?” I say while trying to suppress a shudder.  
“What about me?” He says as he tilts his head.  
“Shadows left you when you emerged from the mist the other day.” I really hope I didn't overstep my boundaries.  
He sighs and reaches for his cup. “I become human after my night's work is done.” He says as his adam's apple bobs after he takes a sip. He sets down the cup and looks at me hard, waiting for a response.  
I feel my hands begin to shake and the tips of my fingers grew cold from the blood in my body rushing to my feet-- my natural instinct was to run, but of course, being me, I ignore it completely. I don't know what came over me, but I leaned over the small table between us, bringing myself closer to him and holding his attention.  
“So if you're human, then I could kiss you all day long without dying for it.” I whisper so the shadows don't hear.  
The only sound is the shattering noise of his cup hitting the floor as he drops it in shock and his mouth hangs open.

 

 

“Kiss me now.” He says while the golden light of the setting sun illuminates his home.  
He coyly leans into me as my back smacks into the wall. Half a smile possesses his lips as his hands find my shoulders and he slowly creeps closer.  
“What will happen to me?” I whisper against his heavy expulsion of breath.  
“A beautiful world awaits you my dear.” He says softly, almost entranced with my presence as his entire body presses against mine.  
I break away from his advances and hand him his jacket. “I don't know why you're here,” He says with a hint of disappointment coating his voice. “but I'm not letting you leave until I find out.” He slips on his coat and descends the stairs into the mist.  
I slink upstairs, trying to exempt myself from the sinking feeling that was imminent in his absence. I don't even mind the shadows stretching across the corridors as the memory of his smile haunts my mind.  
I don't bother to pick up the abandoned sheets crumpled in the corner as I walk past to lay on the barren bed. The hours wandered passed me as I lay awake, obsessed with the though of him; consumed by every detail that composed him. The moonlight caressed the breeze which pushed open the window. Rose petals began to drift into the room to my surprise. They wandered into the air, the same way snow does—wavering against each other and gracefully falling onto every surface. As one touched my hand, suddenly everything became clear to me as I awaited Mr. Mordrake's return.

 

My heart made a hollow noise as it thumped lightly in my chest upon hearing his footsteps ascend the staircase.  
“Mr.Mordrake.” I whispered, still laying on the bed.  
He gasped in the doorway at seeing how the night changed me.  
“Your eyes have turned such a heartless blue.” He claims.  
“Shhh.” I say while walking over to him and pulling off his jacket. The rose petals swiveled around us with our every movement, even the most gentle.  
I tugged on the collar of his shirt, lulling him onto the bed. He fell on top of me as flowers bounced into the air. “I've come to relieve you of your otherworldly duties.” I say while wrapping my arms around the nape of his neck. “Kiss me.” I whisper as every exhalation of my words hits his cheek. The moon watches as I squeeze myself even closer to him and we sink deeper into the soft bed.  
“What will happen to me?” He asks against my lips.  
“A beautiful world awaits you my love.” I say softly, entranced with his presence as our lips meet.


End file.
